


Business As Usual

by blackidyll



Category: Supernatural
Genre: (extended version), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, M/M, Team Free Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 00:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3831178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackidyll/pseuds/blackidyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six worlds where Team Free Will runs six different businesses – auto mechanic, bee farm, brewery, pizzeria, supply store, cafe/deli – and hunting is a distant thought in the horizon, if there at all.  </p>
<p>Inspired by kamicom’s gorgeous <a href="http://kamicom.tumblr.com/post/116923470712/just-playing-around-with-some-hipster-supernatural">SPN graphic logo set.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Business As Usual

**Author's Note:**

> For the gracious [kamicom](http://kamicom.tumblr.com/), who deserves all the AU worlds her graphics have inspired. Credit for the names of all the businesses goes to her, of course. 
> 
> Please like/reblog her wonderful [SPN graphic set!](http://kamicom.tumblr.com/post/116923470712/just-playing-around-with-some-hipster-supernatural)

**1\. Singer & Sons – Auto Mechanics **

It shouldn’t be a surprise, because Dean has only been going on about the new shop for the past month and a half. It shouldn’t be a surprise, because Bobby hadn’t kept his plans secret by any stretch of the imagination and by the time Sam finally manages to badger them into finishing the paperwork already (faxing the forms over from all the way in California and leaving a million voicemail reminders between classes), he’s already halfway to earning his law degree.

But it’s one thing to hear Dean talk about the new shop, pride warring with tiredness from a long day’s work in his voice, and another thing entirely to see the name on the sign, bold and in your face: Singer and Sons.

Singer and **Sons**. Plural. Even though Sam’s established himself in Stanford, happy amongst his research and his books and happier out in the world, even though it’s been years since he’s looked at a car as anything other than a means of transportation (not the way Dean does, to whom an engine or carburetor is like a perfect puzzle to take apart and lovingly put back together).

Sam sets down his suitcase, the summer holiday stretching ahead of him, and knows that he is home.

 

 

**2\. Castiel’s Honey**

There are a number of reasons why Meg only uses Castiel’s all natural honey, and why she insists on going directly to his house and the sprawling meadow behind it with the hives to pick it up. For one, the honey really is the best she’s tasted, concentrated goodness that is perfumed by the flowers his bees prefer; for another, Castiel is just as sweet as his honey, with an air of grumpy, scruffy innocence that Meg wants to scrub all over with her sinful ways (the fact that Cas has known her for years now and still remains his good old pristine unicorn– if still scruffy – self is both a source of loving frustration and entertainment; Meg loves the hardest challenges).

But most of all, it’s for the murderous look on Dean Winchester’s face when he visits and finds Meg ensconced in the most comfortable  armchair  in Castiel’s living room, a pot of tea and a jar of honey at her elbow, smiling at him with all sultry smugness she can bring to bear.

Castiel might have accepted Dean as his dearest beloved, but Dean’s got another thing coming if he thinks Meg’s going to make it easy for him; as best corrupter (oh fine, best _friend_ ), it’s practically an obligation for her to make Dean’s life a living hell until he proves himself worthy and more.

And well. Castiel never begrudges her tea and honey flavored baked goods when she’s around, and the honey is really that good.

 

 

**3\. Hunter’s Helper – Local Brewery**

Dean draws a draft from the keg, the latest of their experimental brews. He sets the glass in front of Cas, and gestures for Cas to taste.

He watches Cas drink, listens to the insightful comments Cas makes, because the man has a gift for sensing the subtle flavors in a brew. Dean makes mental notes, because the brewery has their signature types of beer but he’s always game to create more varieties, and because Cas in his element is a sight to behold.

And when Cas is done, draining the last of the beer from his glass, Dean gets to do his favorite thing - to lean over to kiss him, licking into his mouth and tasting beer on his tongue, to catch a little taste of heaven from Castiel’s lips.

**4\. The Profound Bond Pizzeria**

The naming of the pizzeria goes something like this:

Dean’s pitch about the pizzas often include one of the following phrases: “stuff that goes well together, all the ingredients that we’re familiar with on pizza with few surprises thrown in to spice things up” when talking casually, “a perfect bond of flavors and textures, of tastes that go well together and make each other pop,” when pushed, with “oh yeah, fresh ingredients only” sometimes tacked on as an afterthought.

Charlie is charmed by the sound of Perfect Bond Pizzeria. Dean shoots it down because it sounds too much like a dating site, an argument that Sam shoots down because it’s been half a dozen arguments and a zillion hours of brainstorming and they don’t have any better ideas, and then Cas, the walking thesaurus, simply says “A profound bond. Yes.”

There’s such serenity in his voice when he says it that Dean doesn’t have the heart to say anything in protest (like “I know eating can be a religious experience but I don’t think our pizzas are at the stage of providing enlightenment, Cas”). And that’s that.

(The thing is, people ask about it sometimes. And Dean has his pitch, slightly modified to include the profoundness of their amazing pizza, but one day Charlie gets the question and she answers, with an impish twinkle in her eye, “oh, our chefs, they share a profound bond, you see. Dean’s the one who comes up with the best combinations of ingredients that will blow your mind, but it’s Cas’s skill in kneading and tossing that gives our pizza their amazing bases, light and crisp and delicious. Together, they create perfection.”

And Dean can’t say a damn thing, because it’s true, it’s too fucking true, and the glow in Cas’s eyes when he overhears Charlie – yeah. Yeah.

And that’s that.) 

 

 

**5\. Winchester Hunting Equipment**

They get all kinds of people in the shop, but Dean’s pinged to the odd ones. They’re not like any of the other folk that set off Dean’s internal alarm, like the dangerous (which Dean handles with care and a firm hand and a call to the authorities, if needed) or the inexperienced (who get a lecture and more about proper handling); they’re often succinct but firm, with a quiet confidence that come from hard years.  

They get the standard items – weapons, supplies, rugged clothing – and some not so standard stuff. Like rock salt, the kind to de-ice roads, in the height of summer, which Dean keeps more as personal stock than for selling in the shop. Iron, in all forms. Guns and knives and other weapons like axes and machetes, which make sense individually but become suspect when combined. Dean has good memory and a sharp eye; he keeps a tally of who buys what, even if they pick up supplies weeks or even months apart.

They never threaten him (more importantly, Dean doesn’t feel threatened by them), and it’s good business. So when one of them pays for two bags of rock salt and pushes one to him, telling him to seal the exits and windows, Dean does, and makes sure Sam knows not to disturb the salt lines.

Dean wonders, but he doesn’t ask. There’s a part of him that’s burning to know, to face the shadows that lurk head on but he’s got a little brother to put through college and his dad’s legacy to uphold and that’s—

That’s more important right now.

 

 

**6\. D &C Café and Deli **

Sam likes the café, because it’s where his family is and where he can reliably find them. There’s Dean manning the café side and Cas taking duty at the deli. There’s Charlie with her laptop, revamping the café website or maybe breaking into the Pentagon, and Kevin munching absentmindedly on a muffin and miraculously keeping the crumbs away from his textbooks. It’s warm and homey and the place smells delicious all the time, and Jess loves it there; it should be embarrassing, but they’ve spent more than a few dates just hanging out where Sam’s entire dysfunctional, patchwork family is.

He also likes it because it’s all there in the name. D&C, Dean and Castiel, Dean and Cas together and it’s practically a proposal, when Dean gruffly suggests it, the way Castiel accepts. The café-deli runs like a smooth engine and sometimes Sam catches the two of them in moments of domesticity that’s more suited to a long married couple, but with all the intensity of two irresistible forces.

It makes Sam think, and think a lot, especially when he’s there with Jess. That he’d very much like a place where her name is nestled with his, immutable, Sam and Jess, Jess and Sam against the world.

There’s a little velvet box in his pocket. He hopes she says yes.


End file.
